Improving the wear performance of a commercial Vit 1 amorphous alloy by a cryogenic cycling treatment

• Published in: Journal of materials science Vol. 56; no. 13; pp. 8276 - 8287
• Main Authors: Zhai, Haimin, Du, Yin, Li, Xuqiang, Li, Wensheng, Wang, Haifeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-05-2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abrasive wear; Alloys; Amorphous alloys; Banded structure; Casting alloys; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Cryogenic treatment; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Cycles; Edge dislocations; Energy dissipation; Heterogeneity; Heterogeneous structure; Materials Science; Mechanical properties; Metallic glasses; Metals & Corrosion; Plastic properties; Polymer Sciences; Shear bands; Solid Mechanics; Solid phases; Specialty metals industry; Wear mechanisms; Wear rate
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-021-05794-5

A commercial Vit 1 amorphous alloy was processed by a cryogenic cycling treatment of different times. The phase structure, thermal, mechanical and wear properties were studied. Although the cryogenic cycling treatment does not change significantly the phase structure, it promotes thermal rejuvenation, i.e., the heterogeneity of the internal structure. The heterogeneous structure promotes initiation of multiple shear bands within the amorphous alloy to bring about dissipative deformation energy, which in turn increases the plasticity. Thanks to the plasticization, the wear properties were significantly improved by the cryogenic cycling treatment. In particular, the wear rate after 30 cycles of treatment (7.55 × 10
–5
 mm
3
/N m) decreases to about one third of the as-cast alloy (22.75 × 10
–5
mm
3
/N m). The reason is that with the increase in plasticity, the wear mechanism of Vit 1 BMG changes from three-body abrasive wear to a synergistic mechanism of three-body abrasive wear and oxidative wear. Therefore, improving the plasticity of amorphous alloys by the cryogenic cycling treatment could be an effectively strategy to enhance the wear perfermance.